You've Got It All Wrong
by ev1lregal
Summary: What if the Charmings were the ones who enacted the curse? Every year on his birthday, Henry's moms tell him the story of how they met and how they've come to live in Storybrooke.


**AN**: Written for the OUaT_ff_exchange

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Once Upon a Time. All mistakes are mine.

* * *

Regina covers what remains of Henry's birthday cake with plastic wrap and places it in the refrigerator. She looks around one last time to make sure her kitchen is clean and tidy before taking her apron off.

A quick glance at the clock tells her it is 10:15pm; way past her 9 year-old's bedtime.

She walks to the living room where her son and wife are playing some sort of video game together. Regina leans against the doorframe and observes her family for a moment before she'll inevitably have to _ruin_ the fun.

Henry is whooping every time he collects coins, and Regina can hear the way he frantically jams at the buttons. She can't see his face, but she knows his brow is furrowed in concentration, and the tip of his tongue is poking out.

Emma has pulled her hair up in a bun; something she does only when she means 'serious business' or so Henry says. She's sitting on the edge of the couch, tensed. Regina can see her moving the controller from left to right, up and down, as if it's helping moving her character around. Emma is probably biting her bottom lip to keep her from shouting expletives in front of their son.

"Henry, _Emma_, time for bed," Regina announces a few minutes later.

"But mom it's my birthday! Can't I stay up later?" Henry whines, his eyes never leaving the screen.

"It's already later, Henry. I let you well over an hour."

"Okay," he grumbles, "but just wait until one of us dies, please! I'm almost beating Ma."

Emma snorts and mumbles, "yeah, right!"

"That sounds fair," Regina concedes, happy to simply watch them play for a moment longer.

Emma quickly looks over her shoulder at her wife with a wicked grin, and Regina nods, her smile almost mirroring her wife's.

A few seconds later, Emma waves her hand in the air discreetly.

"Hey! What? MA!" Henry yells frustrated. He throws his blue controller on the carpeted floor and gets up. "You cheated! I was beating you! That's not fair! Mom, tell her that's not fair!" The boy looks to his other mother for help, but Regina simply shrugs.

"I can't control her, Henry," she says, fighting the smile that threatened to betray her amusement. "You know how sore of a loser she is."

"Hey, that's not true!" Emma retorts indignantly. "It was just a silly joke! You wanted him to go to bed."

"Sure, dear, whatever you say," Regina says, looking at her with an eyebrow risen in incredulity. She winks at her son. "Go brush your teeth and get ready for bed, Henry. We'll be up in a minute."

Still mad at his mom for her little magic trick, Henry stomps up the stairs, but as soon as he reaches the top, he turns around and asks uncertainly, "I still get to hear our story right? It's my birthday."

"You bet, kid."

"Of course, dear."

* * *

Five minutes later, Henry is in bed, ready for his story, Regina and Emma sitting on either side of him. Ever since the curse, on his birthday five years ago, his mothers tell him the story of how they met and how they've come to live in Storybrooke. He knows most of the story by heart and he thinks he can remember the day Emma climbed over the castle's wall, but he never gets tired of hearing it. It's his favourite tale, and he's not ready to let go of the tradition it has become.

"Alright, here we go, kid. Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far away, in another realm actually," Emma starts with a grin.

"Ma, come on!" Henry rolls his eyes at his mother.

"What? I was going with the authentic fairy tale formula."

"Just get on with it, dear," Regina says, smiling lovingly at her wife. "We'll be here for hours if you don't hurry."

"So as I was saying before you so rudely interrupted, in this kingdom, in this other world…"

* * *

_Princess Emma had spent her childhood sheltered (not to say imprisoned) inside the walls of the White Castle. She was quite spirited and yearned for great adventures. She dreamt of travelling across the lands of the Enchanted Forest on her beautiful white horse. She would battle ogres, defeat trolls and rescue her True Love just as a dragon was about to eat them alive. She would be a hero; the Saviour of the realm._

_But no matter how much she cried and begged to simply be allowed to walk in the surrounding woods (even with her guards), to visit the market or swim in the river flowing behind the south wall, her parents adamantly refused._

"_It's not safe for a young princess out there," her father would say._

"_You could get hurt," her mother would reply._

* * *

"Wasn't that a bit hypocritical of your parents, dear?" Regina interjects abruptly, running her fingers through her hair, something she does when she is highly frustrated.

"Why?" Henry asks confused, "Because Snow White and Prince Charming had all sorts of adventures of their own when they were younger?"

"Exactly," Emma answers bitterly.

* * *

_Princess Emma didn't understand why her parents never let her go farther than the great walls to explore. Ever since she was a young child, the dwarves told her stories of her mother fighting against King's guards, escaping trolls and even challenging the Evil Queen herself._

"_These must be lies," Emma said defiantly one day. Surely, her parents had never done anything like that; especially not fight against _her_. "They never go out."_

"_Of course, they don't. They have you to think of now. You are their happiness," Grumpy replied._

_In truth, the Charmings were terribly, terribly afraid of what waited for them outside. Years ago, on the day of their wedding, the Evil Queen had sworn she would stop at nothing to destroy their happy ending._ _For years, the White and the Black kingdoms had been at war; armies of men and magical creatures killing each other in the name of their queens. No one ever thought it would come to an end, but one day, the Black army had simply vanished mid-combat. The Evil Queen had recalled her men, and they never heard from her again._

_Princess Emma had always been told somber legends when it came to the Queen of the Black Castle, until the day of her twentieth birthday when she met Belle French, a storyteller who had travelled all across the Enchanted Forest. She was part of Regina's court and wrote children's stories for a living. _

"_Oh no, these are all lies," Belle said when Emma recounted all she had heard about the Evil Regina Mills._

"_Regina isn't evil at all, quite the contrary. She has the biggest heart of all the realm. She loves deeply and passionately and she would never hurt anyone; especially not since the arrival of the little prince Henry."_

"_Henry?" Emma questioned._

"_Her son, of course," Belle said curiously. "Didn't you know? Queen Regina is a mother now."_

_Emma was shocked. Nobody had told her. Did her parents even know?_

"_She killed my grand-father," Emma said, "is that a lie too?"_

_Belle seemed taken by surprise. She pondered the question and said, "Regina was but only a child herself on their wedding night… I believe he got what he deserves. No should always mean no." _

_Emma wasn't too sure what Belle was referring to, but she pushed anyway, "But what about the war? She killed a lot of innocents."_

"_So did your parents, and yet, nobody is calling them evil." Belle's tone wasn't accusatory; she wasn't putting the blame on anyone. She was simply telling things as they were. She was a good storyteller. Emma didn't understand. If the Evil Queen wasn't evil, were her parents not the good guys after all? Who really had started it all and why?_

_Emma decided that day that it was time she left her parents and the castle and explored the lands she was desperate to discover. She was an adult now, old enough to make her own decisions. If her parents tried to stop her, they would have to lock her up in the dungeon. Princess Emma was leaving, and Belle had agreed to let Emma accompany her back to the castle she called her home._

* * *

_The Evil Queen wasn't evil, not really. Her name was Regina Mills and she never wanted to be crowned. All she dreamt of was to ride her horse, see the world and find her True Love. She wasn't too different from Princess Emma you see. _

_Her mother, Cora, had been the one seeking more and more power and she wasn't above using her own daughter if it meant getting the crown (and the privileges that came with it) she desperately desired._

_Cora had manipulated her daughter from an early age, using magic to discipline (some would say abuse) Regina, and model her into a compliant and subdued child._

_Cora, later known as the Queen of Hearts (in Wonderland), invented schemes after schemes; all of them were plans to get Regina married to any king who would want her daughter's hand no matter the cost. _

_Regina always wondered what she had done to deserve such a life. Her mother finally got what she so zealously wanted. With more than a simple twist of fate, Regina was certain of it, King Leopold had asked for her hand._

_Maybe it wouldn't have been as dreadful a marriage if he weren't at least three times her age and if he truly cared for her._

_Regina had witnessed the murder of her fiancé and forced into a loveless marriage. Her innocence and hope had been robbed from her, and all she was left with was a burning anger. That rage was source of great powers and Rumpelstiltskin was only too happy to use it as he pleased. _

* * *

"Evil isn't born, it's made," Henry recites wisely the phrase his mother so often reminds him.

"That is what I believe," Regina agrees, her brown eyes glossy with unshed tears. After all these years, she still feels guilty, still feels like she should spend every second of her life repenting for the atrocities she's committed. Maybe evil is made, but she is responsible for what she became, for the choices she made.

"Your mother was never actually evil, kid. People just made her out to be," Emma says, reaching over to squeeze her wife's shoulder.

Regina wants to protest. Emma is once again this year lying to their son. Hadn't she been evil? Maybe she hasn't killed peasants simply because they were in her way, but she did have her _husband_ killed, trapped a genie in her mirror, and pushed her own mother through a looking glass.

Emma must have felt Regina tense, because she rubs soothing circles with her thumb on her shoulder and smiles warmly at her, her eyes pleading Regina to let it go.

"Mom being evil is just silly!" Henry snickers, oblivious to Regina's inner turmoil. "She's afraid of spiders."

Emma laughs, taken by surprise at Henry's reasoning. "That's right, kid. That's silly. _Everyone_ in Storybrooke loves your mom," she says looking emphatically at her wife.

* * *

_On the morrow of her wedding, Snow White ordered her army to storm the Black Castle and to kill the Queen._

_Of course, Regina retaliated, and both armies fought tirelessly for years. Neither side ever thought the war would end. Each year, the kingdoms at war would grow increasingly tired._

_Food rations became sparse amongst the White army. More and more peasants had to take arms to replace the fallen soldiers, leaving only the wives and children to tend to the crops._

_The Black troops never lacked of anything. Regina supplied her men with food magically grown and did her best to protect the people living on her lands, but the constant use of magic was draining her vital energy._

_Each day was the same as the previous, and Regina grew restless. She often thought of yielding, but her pride got in the way. And then one day, Snow White's great wolf got past all of the Evil Queen's guards and delivered a beautiful baby boy at her feet._

_A little boy was all it took to restore the peace all across the Enchanted Forest._

* * *

"Aunty Ruby! She was carrying me!"

"Yes, dear," Regina nods, her eyes meeting Emma's.

"Henry, the Enchanted Forest's little Saviour," Emma teased.

* * *

_On her way to the front line, the wolf had heard a baby wailing not far away into the forest. Upon entering the clearing, Red immediately saw him. The baby's parents had been killed by stray arrows of the White Queen's army._

'What were they thinking travelling so close to the battle line?'_ Red thought chagrined._

_Realisations suddenly dawned on the werewolf as she cradled the infant to her chest, rocking him gently. They were killing innocents. She wasn't – and didn't_ _want to be – a killer. Years ago, Red had chosen to stand up to her own mother to protect her friend, but now that same friend was making her do horrible things. Red was tired of fighting. The past years had been filled with pain, blood and death. She longed to run freely under the moon, to meet new people and find love again._

_Regina hadn't been the first one to send an army to the doors of her nemesis' castle. Snow did, afraid of what her step-mother would do if she were giving the chance to strike first._

_Once she was sure that the baby was sound asleep, Red wrapped him up securely in his blanket and changed into her wolf-self. She carried the boy through the woods far from the battlefield and brought him to the one person she knew would love him unconditionally. The dark Queen deserved love._

* * *

"And then Aunty Ruby decided to live in the Black Castle with us?" Henry asks even though he already knows the answer.

"Yes, she said she couldn't just leave you there. She had to make sure I took care of you properly," Regina explains, "but we all know it was so she could roam my part of the forest…"

"And stay close to your aunt Belle," Emma finishes, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. Henry scrunches up his nose in mock-disgust.

"Aunty Belle says it was because she was mad at your mom, Ma."

* * *

_A few days after the war ended, Red came back to the Black Castle and requested an audience with the Queen. She asked if Regina minded her living on her land. She was after all Snow White's best friend. Red promised she would keep to herself. She would take a little house on the border of the forest, and nobody would hear of her. When Regina asked why she weren't going back to the White Castle, Red said she couldn't leave Henry; she had to make sure he had a good life._

_Regina could tell the wolf-girl was lying, but she didn't pry. Noticing how lost Red looked, the Queen offered her a place in her court and quarters in one of the best parts of her castle. Red hesitated to accept, but as she intended on getting to know the Queen better she decided to seize the opportunity._

_Red stayed in her room for a week without seeing anyone. Servants brought her food, but she barely touched any of it. She slept during the day and cried late into the night._

_Belle's room was next to Red's, and she could hear the sobs floating through her open windows._

_On the seventh night, Belle couldn't stand it anymore. The constant sobbing coming from the room next to hers was breaking her heart. She closed the book she was currently reading and quietly wandered down the hall. Belle knocked on the door and waited, but no answer came._

"_I know you are in there," Belle called through the wooden door. "I can hear you, are you alright?"_

_As soon as she pronounced the words, she blushed into the darkness. Of course she wasn't alright! She wouldn't be crying herself to sleep if she were._

"_I'm coming in," Belle announced resolutely._

"_I'm fine, please go away," Red finally answered when she heard the knob turning. Her voice was hoarse and tired, and she was certain her appearance mirrored the way she sounded. Red didn't want anyone to see her like this. Albeit reluctantly, Belle respected her wish and went back to her room. That night, she fell asleep to the sound of muffled cries._

* * *

"Why was aunty Ruby so sad?" Henry asked innocently. "She wasn't a prisoner."

Regina smiles and taps his nose with the tip of her finger.

"She was sad because she had lost her family," the former queen answers.

"But _she_ decided to live with us, and we are her family. I don't understand." He had never heard this part of the story before and he wasn't sure he liked it.

"Henry, even if it were her choice, it still hurt. Your aunt Ruby was very much conflicted about the war and the part she had played."

"And aunty Belle made her feel less sad?" he asks, hope colouring his voice.

"Yes," Regina said, nodding, "they quickly became good friends. A few weeks later, I invited both Ruby and Belle to a dinner we were having in your honor. I made sure they were seated together."

At that new piece of information Emma quirks an eyebrow, "Were you playing matchmaker, Your Majesty?"

"What if I were?"

Henry gasps and then giggles, "Mom!"

"I think they are perfect for each other, don't you?" Regina asks her son her brown eyes shining mischievously.

"Yeah!" Henry readily agreed. "So after my special dinner aunty Ruby was happy again?"

"She started to go out and smile more. She accompanied Belle to the village a few times a week. She took you out on strolls around the yard and she spent some nights in her wolf-self running in the forest. She wasn't happy, but she was content."

"She missed me?" Emma whispers, a lone tear rolling down her cheek at the memory. It's a question she knows the answer too. Red had missed her just as much as Emma had.

"Yes, dear, she missed you very much." Regina wipes the tear with her thumb and caresses her cheek.

"So aunty Ruby asked Belle to bring Ma to us?" Henry asks still not entirely sure why his aunt Belle had gone back to the White Castle.

"Nah, Belle promised Ruby she would simply check on me and my mother to make sure we were okay. She came every year on my birthday after the war ended."

"But on your twentieth birthday you came home with her!" Henry says excitedly. This was one of his favourite parts.

"Princess Emma met Belle outside of the gate late into the night." Emma narrates her _great escape_.

"How did you sneak out, Ma?"

"I hid in a merchant's chariot."

* * *

_Princess Emma was wearing a green cape over a modest dress and had packed only a few of her most precious possessions into a wicker basket. Belle had assured her they could get food and horses in the village down the hill._

_Emma had decided to simply leave a note to her parents telling them she had left on an adventure. She was certain the Charmings would send guards after her, so she made sure to direct them on the wrong path. She wrote she was heading to the mountains where a ferocious dragon was rumoured to live._

_During the eight days it took them to cross the forest and arrive to the Black Castle, Belle told Emma fantastic tales of knights killing dragons, stories of how a beautiful former princess fell in love with a werewolf and how a little prince saved an entire realm._

* * *

"They finally got to the castle, and the moment Princess Emma laid her eyes on this beautiful not so evil queen she knew she would do anything to conquer her heart. Fin," Emma ends the story hastily, not wanting to get into the part where her own parents cursed an entire realm.

"Ma, you forget the most important part!" Henry exclaims indignantly. How could she leave out the moment when he recognized her as the True Saviour?

"It's hardly the most important, kid," Emma scoffs, trying to downplay her uneasiness.

"Emma!" Regina tilts her head to look at her wife, and Henry, shocked, sits up with a frown on his face.

"What do you mean?" Henry growls at her. Oh, Ruby would be proud.

"I… My parents… I don't…" she stammers, looking to her wife for help.

"I think Henry meant the part when _he_ saw you for the first time," Regina intervenes. She strokes her son's hair in a comforting manner, and Emma proposes he tells his part of the story.

"Okay! On a beautiful late summer day…Or was it early autumn? When's your birthday Ma?"

* * *

_Young Prince Henry was playing outside with his aunt Red. She had turned herself into her wolf-self, and he was riding on her back across the yard pretending he was a knight in shining armour. _

_His mother, the beautiful Queen, was reading sitting under her precious apple tree when she heard his son shout for her._

"_Mama! Mama!" the young Prince yelled, "Look! There, on the wall!"_

_Regina dropped her book and rose to her feet ready to throw a fireball at the stranger's head._

_The wolf, upon seeing the intruder, shook the Prince gently off her back and shifted into her human form._

"_Regina, wait!" Red cried. She ran to the wall and smiled brightly. "Emma, is that you?"_

"_Red!" the newcomer called as she jumped off the bricked fence, "Belle was right! You are really here!" They hugged and cried in each other's arms._

_Henry ran to his mother and told her, "It's her, mama, the woman from Belle's book. She's the Saviour, your True Love!" _

* * *

"I still don't understand why you couldn't use the main entrance like Belle did, darling," Regina says.

"It was my first adventure, okay?" Emma replies defensively. "I was young and I had just spent an entire week walking and riding across the forest with Belle. Do you know how many stories she knows about valiant knights? A lot! And I had never climbed on anything before. It was exciting."

Henry chuckles and nods in agreement. Aunty Belle sure knows a lot of stories.

"And then you saw mom and mom saw you and it was love at first sight right? You are each other's True Love."

Henry yawns and Regina takes it as a cue to finish the story quickly.

"Yes, that's right, dear. We fell in love, but your grandparents wouldn't let us get married so they called upon the Dark One..."

"Mr. Gold, I mean, Rumpelstiltskin," Henry interrupts, breaking into another yawn.

"Yes. They asked for help, but they weren't familiar with magic and his way of dealing. They formulated their wish rather poorly," Regina goes on.

"What was it they asked for?" Henry asks, snuggling into Emma's side. She wraps an arm protectively around him and kissed the crown of his head.

"They requested a spell so they wouldn't 'have to deal with their daughter marrying the Evil Queen'," Emma says with contempt. She shakes her head and closes her eyes.

"Well they don't have to deal with us now, do they?" Regina says forlornly, squeezing her wife's hand. She knows Emma's wound is still raw. It will most likely forever be. What her parents have done is unspeakable. Crueller than everything Regina had ever done, worse than anything Cora had ever put Regina through. How could they abandon, reject their perfect child?

"Are they the only ones left in the Enchanted Forest?" Henry asks for the first time in five years. His expression is anxious and Regina quickly reassures him.

"No, Gold said the curse left most of their kingdom untouched."

"Anyway, I'm glad we were transported here in Storybrooke," Emma declares. She didn't like to dwell on her parents' fate. "Indoor plumbing is magical!"

"And television and the internet!" Henry adds.

"But most importantly," Regina says tucking her son in, "we get to be a family."

Emma hums her approval and leans over to kiss her wife.

"And we're going to live happily ever after," Henry murmurs as he falls asleep.

* * *

**AN**: Hope you enjoyed it :) Feedback is always appreciated! xx

**Tumblr**: charmingregal


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